Skill Documentation Healing

VerifiedSafe

Detects a running skill, identifies errors encountered during execution, proposes targeted fixes, and applies changes after user approval.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DocumentationIntermediate
209/20/2026
Claude Code
#skill-maintenance#documentation#approval-workflow#self-healing#meta-skill

Recommended for

Our review

Analyzes the current conversation to identify which skill was running, proposes before/after corrections to its SKILL.md and related files, and applies them only after explicit user approval.

Strengths

  • Presents every correction as a before/after diff with root cause, impact scope and expected verification
  • Enforces user approval through a 4-option menu (apply and commit, apply without committing, revise, cancel) before any edit
  • Reads back each modified section and checks cross-file consistency between SKILL.md, references/ and scripts/
  • Can create a structured commit describing what was healed

Limitations

  • Skill detection relies on conversation context (invocation messages, recent SKILL.md references) and falls back to asking the user when unclear
  • Assumes a ./skills/<name>/SKILL.md layout and only scans references/ and scripts/ at that level
  • Does not automatically validate that the fix is actually correct — correctness depends on the user's judgement
When to use it

Use it when a skill's documentation proved wrong during a run and you want it corrected with a review step.

When not to use it

Avoid it when authoring a brand-new skill from scratch or when no concrete in-session correction has been identified.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score88/100

The skill only uses Read, Edit, and Bash restricted to 'ls:*' and 'git:*' commands. It requires explicit user approval before making any edits, and no destructive, exfiltrating, or obfuscated actions are present. The git operations are limited to committing changes after approval.

No concerns found

Examples

Fix an outdated command
The deploy skill told me to run `npm run build:prod`, but that script no longer exists — it's `npm run build:production` now. Heal the skill with the corrected command.
Correct an API example
Heal the api-client skill: the pagination example in SKILL.md uses a `page` parameter, but the API now expects `cursor`. Update the example and any related references.
Fix a specific issue
/heal-skill the auth flow section — the token refresh snippet uses the deprecated /oauth/token endpoint instead of /oauth2/token.

description: Heal skill documentation by applying corrections discovered during execution with approval workflow argument-hint: [optional: specific issue to fix] allowed-tools: [Read, Edit, Bash(ls:), Bash(git:)]

<objective> Update a skill's SKILL.md and related files based on corrections discovered during execution.

Analyze the conversation to detect which skill is running, reflect on what went wrong, propose specific fixes, get user approval, then apply changes with optional commit. </objective>

<context> Skill detection: !`ls -1 ./skills/*/SKILL.md | head -5` </context>

<quick_start> <workflow>

  1. Detect skill from conversation context (invocation messages, recent SKILL.md references)
  2. Reflect on what went wrong and how you discovered the fix
  3. Present proposed changes with before/after diffs
  4. Get approval before making any edits
  5. Apply changes and optionally commit </workflow>

</quick_start>

<process> <step_1 name="detect_skill"> Identify the skill from conversation context:
  • Look for skill invocation messages
  • Check which SKILL.md was recently referenced
  • Examine current task context

Set: SKILL_NAME=[skill-name] and SKILL_DIR=./skills/$SKILL_NAME

If unclear, ask the user. </step_1>

<step_2 name="reflection_and_analysis"> Focus on $ARGUMENTS if provided, otherwise analyze broader context.

Determine:

  • What was wrong: Quote specific sections from SKILL.md that are incorrect
  • Discovery method: Context7, error messages, trial and error, documentation lookup
  • Root cause: Outdated API, incorrect parameters, wrong endpoint, missing context
  • Scope of impact: Single section or multiple? Related files affected?
  • Proposed fix: Which files, which sections, before/after for each </step_2>

<step_3 name="scan_affected_files">

ls -la $SKILL_DIR/
ls -la $SKILL_DIR/references/ 2>/dev/null
ls -la $SKILL_DIR/scripts/ 2>/dev/null

</step_3>

<step_4 name="present_proposed_changes"> Present changes in this format:

**Skill being healed:** [skill-name]
**Issue discovered:** [1-2 sentence summary]
**Root cause:** [brief explanation]

**Files to be modified:**
- [ ] SKILL.md
- [ ] references/[file].md
- [ ] scripts/[file].py

**Proposed changes:**

### Change 1: SKILL.md - [Section name]
**Location:** Line [X] in SKILL.md

**Current (incorrect):**

[exact text from current file]


**Corrected:**

[new text]


**Reason:** [why this fixes the issue]

[repeat for each change across all files]

**Impact assessment:**
- Affects: [authentication/API endpoints/parameters/examples/etc.]

**Verification:**
These changes will prevent: [specific error that prompted this]

</step_4>

<step_5 name="request_approval">

Should I apply these changes?

1. Yes, apply and commit all changes
2. Apply but don't commit (let me review first)
3. Revise the changes (I'll provide feedback)
4. Cancel (don't make changes)

Choose (1-4):

Wait for user response. Do not proceed without approval. </step_5>

<step_6 name="apply_changes"> Only after approval (option 1 or 2):

  1. Use Edit tool for each correction across all files
  2. Read back modified sections to verify
  3. If option 1, commit with structured message showing what was healed
  4. Confirm completion with file list </step_6> </process>

<success_criteria>

  • Skill correctly detected from conversation context
  • All incorrect sections identified with before/after
  • User approved changes before application
  • All edits applied across SKILL.md and related files
  • Changes verified by reading back
  • Commit created if user chose option 1
  • Completion confirmed with file list </success_criteria>
<verification> Before completing:
  • Read back each modified section to confirm changes applied
  • Ensure cross-file consistency (SKILL.md examples match references/)
  • Verify git commit created if option 1 was selected
  • Check no unintended files were modified </verification>
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